Viva Los Angeles
by indridcold13
Summary: The Pearls set of to Los Angeles to make it rich


Pearl shut off the television and ejected the tape. The lesson had been about operating human audiovisual devices but she'd hoped her choice in film (All the Right Angles: How Trigonometry Makes Life Better!, it was a personal favourite) would help to inspire the class. It had only inspired them to enact the lessons they'd been learning from Amethyst and leave to find other activities.

She wheeled the trolley awkwardly to the storage room, fighting to keep it from tipping over the entire way. Only when she finally got there did she realise it would've been so much easier to transport the whole thing in her gem.

Grumbling quietly to herself she locked the room and left to find the others, it was Friday night, and thus Pearl night.

* * *

A little under two months previously Pearl had made a trip to the reef with Pink Diamond's previous pearl. The event had been quite an experience for both of them.

Pearl had gained more of an insight into her lost charge and love, and had realised there was someone there who could understand her experiences and her pain. Later she began to approach the other pearls, their histories hadn't been exactly the same but they all came from the same position, and had similar needs to grow.

The gatherings had been her idea, a way to support each other and help them grow. A sharing of experience and advice, but it had quickly become clear that wasn't going to happen.

* * *

"It's you're turn!"

Pearl jumped and realised Yellow had been talking to her. She had been distracted by Yellow's nose. Was it her imagination or was it actually larger than everyone else's? Also Pearl wondered if her own nose seemed smaller than it used to be.

She shook her head and peered down at her cards; 3 of Hearts, Ace of Diamonds, 4 of Spades, 7 of Hearts, and 9 of Spades.

"I'll take two." she said, discarding the 7 and 9.

Yellow dealt her two cards, 8 of Hearts and 8 of Clubs.

Yellow grinned proudly. "I'll hold!" the third under-layer of her projected form flickered salmon pink for three milliseconds.

Blue pushed five of her argeo cookies into the center of the table. Volleyball matched the bet and raised by two, nibbling oddly on another, she seemed to have learned to eat from watching mice.

Pearl looked at her cards again and folded.

Yellow looked at the pot and between the remaining players before annoyedly slamming her hand down. "How do you always know!?"

Blue matched volleyball's bet before revealing a pair of 6s.

"I think I might have won!" Volleyball showed her hand "A pair of Jesters is higher, right?"

Pearl groaned, rubbing her eyes tiredly.

"But what does this card mean, Rules for Ohio Holdem?"

"It means someone shuffled wrong." Pearl answered.

Yellow's cheeks darkened and she turned her attention to her glass of laundry detergent.

Pearl stood and started collecting the cards. "Maybe we should call it a night." She hadn't wanted to start a poker night in the first place and had long lost interest with the game. Every game was so similar anyway, Blue always bet everything regardless of her hand, Yellow was too easy to read, and Volleyball never got that you could bluff with a bad hand.

"I think I'm done with this ridiculous game anyway!" Yellow downed her glass "I don't see why humans would play it! How boring could their lives be!?"

"I suppose they're more interested in the money than playing for fun." She stopped on her way to the games cupboard and noticed the room had grown eerily quiet. Turning back to the table she saw the other's staring attentively at her.

"What do you mean, money?" Blue asked.

"Well," Pearl found herself slipping into the instructor role instantaneously "When humans play poker they tend to bet chips that have set monetary values. After the game they convert these chips back into currency that they get to keep."

"Do the humans... win much money this way?" Yellow seemed quieter than usual.

"Well some humans earn enough that they consider it their profession."

"Meaning... we could earn money this way too!" Blue stood smiling.

"I suppose so, but"

"If I got money I could have all the paints I wanted!" Pearl had never seen Blue this energised "Vidalia has to limit how much we use because she says it's expensive."

"Have you seen what kinds of appearance enhancers they have available on this planet!? So glittery and shiny and frilly! I've wanted so many but they always cost so much!" Yellow was grinning again.

Volleyball shoved the rest of the cookie in her mouth and watched them, chewing.

"If we had a large collection of money we could choose new living quarters!" Yellow continued "Large ones filled with mirrors and crystals!"

"With room for a studio!"

"And a wardrobe!"

"And a pool!"

"Okay!" Pearl cut them off "What you're forgetting is none of us are exactly good at this game."

"Actually," Volleyball interjected "We're not great against each other, but we can read expressions finer than any human. And we can calculate probabilities and track cards better too. Against humans we would always have the advantage."

Yellow and Blue turned from Volleyball to look pleadingly at Pearl.

She wanted to say no, to put a stop to this, but something stopped her. They wanted to do this, why stop them trying something new?

"Okay, you win. But we will need some things fist."


End file.
